ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE ABORIGINES

AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS

IN BLATHERSKITE PARK
Alice Spring (Australia), 29 November 1986
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is a great joy for me to be here today in Alice Springs and to meet so many of you, the Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders of Australia. I want to tell you right away how much the Church esteems and loves
you, and how much she wishes to assist you in your spiritual and material needs.
1. At the beginning of time, as Gods Spirit moved over the waters, he began to communicate something of
his goodness and beauty to all creation. When God then created man and woman, he gave them the good
things of the earth for their use and benefit; and he put into their hearts abilities and powers, which were his
gifts. And to all human beings throughout the ages God has given a desire for himself, a desire which
different cultures have tried to express in their own ways.
2. As the human family spread over the face of the earth, your people settled and lived in this big country
that stood apart from all the others. Other people did not even know this land was here; they only knew that
somewhere in the southern oceans of the world there was "The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit".
But for thousands of years you have lived in this land and fashioned a culture that endures to this day. And
during all this time, the Spirit of God has been with you. Your "Dreaming", which influences your lives so
strongly that, no matter what happens, you rema,in for ever people of your culture, is your only way of
touching the mystery of Gods Spirit in you and in creation. You must keep your striving for God and hold
on to it in your lives.
3. The rock paintings and the discovered evidence of your ancient tools and implements indicate the
presence of your age-old culture and prove your ancient occupancy of this land.
Your culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear. Do
not think that your gifts are worth so little that you should no longer bother to maintain them. Share them
with each other and teach them to your children. Your songs, your stories, your paintings, your dances,
your languages, must never be lost. Do you perhaps remember those words that Paul VI spoke to the
aboriginal people during his visit to them in 1970? On that occasion he said: "We know that you have a life
style proper to your own ethnic genius or culture a culture which the Church respects and which she does
not in any way ask you to renounce... Society itself is enriched by the presence of different cultural and
ethnic elements. For us you and the values you represent are precious. We deeply respect your dignity and
reiterate our deep affection for you".
4. For thousands of years this culture of yours was free to grow without interference by people from other
places. You lived your lives in spiritual closeness to the land, with its animals, birds, fishes, waterholes,
rivers, hills and mountains. Through your closeness to the land you touched the sacredness of mans
relationship with God, for the land was the proof of a power in life greater than yourselves.
You did not spoil the land, use it up, exhaust it. and then walk away from it. You realized that your land was
related to the source of life.
The silence of the Bush taught you a quietness of soul that put you in touch with another world, the world of
Gods Spirit. Your careful attention to the details of kinship spoke of your reverence for birth, life and human

generation. You knew that children need to be loved, to be full of joy. They need a time to grow in laughter
and to play, secure in the knowledge that they belong to their people.
You had a great respect for the need which people have for law, as a guide to living fairly with each other.
So you created a legal system very strict it is true but closely adapted to the country in which you lived
your lives. It made your society orderly. It was one of the reasons why you survived in this land.
You marked the growth of your young men and women with ceremonies of discipline that taught them
responsibility as they came to maturity.
These achievements are indications of human strivings. And in these strivings you showed a dignity open
to the message of Gods revealed wisdom to all men and women, which is the great truth of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
5. Some of the stories from your Dreamtime legends speak powerfully of the great mysteries of human life,
its frailty, its need for help, its closeness to spiritual powers and the value of the human person. They are
not unlike some of the great inspired lessons from the people among whom Jesus himself was born. It: is
wonderful to see how people, as they accept the Gospei of Jesus, find points of agreement between their
own traditions and those of Jesus and his people.
6. The culture which this long and careful growth produced was not prepared for the sudden meeting with
another people, with different customs and traditions, who came to your country nearly 200 years ago.
They were different from Aboriginal people. Their traditions, the organization of their lives, and their
attitudes to the land were quite strange to you. Their law too was quite different. These people had
knowledge, money and power; and they brought with them some patterns of behaviour from which the
Aboriginal people were unable to protect themselves.
7. The effects of some of those forces are still active among you today. Many of you have been
dispossessed of your traditional lands, and separated from your tribal ways, though some of you still have
your traditional culture. Some of you are establishing Aboriginal communities in the towns and cities. For
others there is still no real place for camp-fires and kinship observances except on the fringes of country
towns. There, work is hard to find, and education in a different cultural background is difficult. The
discrimination caused by racism is a daily experience.
You have learned how to survive, whether on your own lands, or scattered among the towns and cities.
Though your difficulties are not yet over, you must learn to draw on the endurance which your ancient
ceremonies have taught you. Endurance brings with it patience; patience helps you to find the way ahead,
and gives you courage for your journey.
8. Take heart from the fact that many of your languages are still spoken and that you still possess your
ancient culture. You have kept your sense of brotherhood. If you stay closely united, you are like a tree
standing in the middle of a bush-fire sweeping through the timber. The leaves are scorched and the tough
bark is scarred and burned; but inside the tree the sap is still flowing, and under the ground the roots are
still strong. Like that tree you have endured the flames, and you still have the power to be reborn. The time
for this rebirth is now!
9. We know that during the last two hundred years certain people tried to understand you, to learn about
you, to respect your ways and to honour you as persons. These men and women, as you soon realized,
were different from others of their race. They loved and cared for the indigenous people. They began to
share with you their stories of God, helped you cope with sickness, tried to protect you from ill-treatment.
They were honest with you, and showed you by their lives how they tried to avoid the bad things in their
own culture. These people were not always successful, and there were times when they did not fully
understand you. But they showed you good will and friendship. They came from many different walks of

life. Some were teachers and doctors and other professional people; some were simple folk. History will
remember the good example of their charity and fraternal solidarity.
Among those who have loved and cared for the indigenous people, we especially recall with profound
gratitude all the missionaries of the Christian faith. With immense generosity they gave their lives in service
to you and to your forebears. They helped to educate the Aboriginal people and offered health and social
services. Whatever their human frailty, and whatever mistakes they may have made, nothing can ever
minimize the depht of their charity. Nothing can ever cancel out their greatest contribution, which was to
proclaim to you Jesus Christ and to establish his Church in your midst.
10. From the earliest times men like Archbishop Polding of Sydney opposed the legal fiction adopted by
European settlers that this land was terra nullius nobodys country. He strongly pleaded for the rights of
the Aboriginal inhabitants to keep the traditional lands on which their whole society depended. The Church
still supports you today.
Let it not be said that the fair and equitable recognition of Aboriginal rights to land is discrimination. To call
for the acknowledgment of the land rights of people who have never surrendered those rights is not
discrimination. Certainly, what has been done cannot be undone. But what can now be done to remedy the
deeds of yesterday must not be put off till tomorrow.
Christian people of good will are saddened to realize many of them only recently for how long a time
Aboriginal people were transported from their homelands into small areas or reserves where families were
broken up, tribes split apart, children orphaned and people forced to live like exiles in a foreign country.
The reserves still exist today, and require a just and proper settlement that still lies unachieved. The urban
problems resulting from the transportation and separation of people still have to be addressed, so that
these people may make a new start in life with each other once again.
11. The establishment of a new society for Aboriginal people cannot go forward without just and mutually
recognized agreements with regard to these human problems, even though their causes lie in the past. The
greatest value to be achieved by such agreements, which must be implemented without causing new
injustices, is respect for the dignity and growth of the human person. And you, the Aboriginal people of this
country and its cities, must show that you are actively working for your own dignity of life. On your part, you
must show that you too can walk tall and command the respect which every human being expects to
receive from the rest of the human family.
12. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ speaks all languages. It esteems and embraces all cultures. It
supports them in everything human and, when necessary, it purifies them. Always and everywhere the
Gospel uplifts and enriches cultures with the revealed message of a loving and merciful God.
That Gospel now invites you to become, through and through, Aboriginal Christians. It meets your deepest
desires. You do not have to be people divided into two parts, as though an Aboriginal had to borrow the
faith and life of Christianity, like a hat or a pair of shoes, from someone else who owns them. Jesus calls
you to accept his words and his values into your own culture. To develop in this way will make you more
than ever truly Aboriginal.
The old ways can draw new life and strength from the Gospel. The message of Jesus Christ can lift up your
lives to new heights, reinforce all your positive values and add many others, which only the Gospel in its
originality proposes. Take this Gospel into your own language and way of speaking; let its spirit penetrate
your communities and determine your behaviour towards each other, let it bring new strength to your
stories and your ceremonies. Let the Gospel come into your hearts and renew your personal lives. The
Church invites you to express the living word of Jesus in ways that speak to your Aboriginal minds and
hearts. All over the world people worship God and read his word in their own language, and colour the

great signs and symbols of religion with touches of their own traditions. Why should you be different from
them in this regard, why should you not be allowed the happiness of being with God and each other in
Aboriginal fashion?
13. As you listen to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, seek out the best things of your traditional ways. If
you do, you will come to realize more and more your great human and Christian dignity. Let your minds and
hearts be strengthened to begin a new life now. Past hurts cannot be healed by violence, nor are present
injustices removed by resentment. Your Christian faith calls you to become the best kind of Aboriginal
people you can be. This is possible only if reconciliation and forgiveness are part of your lives. Only then
will you find happiness. Only then will you make your best contribution to all your brothers and sisters in this
great nation. You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will
not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until
that contribution has been joyfully received by others.
In the new world that is emerging for you, you are being called to live fully human and Christian lives, not to
die of shame and sorrow. But you know that to fulfil your role you need a new heart. You will already feel
courage rise up inside you when you listen to God speaking to you in these words of the Prophets:
"Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. Do not be afraid,
for I am with you".
And again:
"I am going to... gather you together... and bring you home to your own land... I shall give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you... You shall be my people and I will
be your God".
14. With you I rejoice in the hope of Gods gift of salvation,
which has its beginnings here and now, and which also depends
on how we behave towards each other, on what we put up with,
on what we do, on how we honour God and love all people.
Dear Aboriginal people: the hour has come for you to take on
new courage and new hope. You are called to remember the
past, to be faithful to your worthy traditions, and to adapt your
living culture whenever this is required by your own needs and
those of your fellowman. Above all you are called to open your
hearts ever more to the consoling, purifying and uplifting
message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died so that we
might all have life, and have it to the full.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1986/november/documents/hf_jpii_spe_19861129_aborigeni-alice-springs-australia_en.html

Living faith in Church of Reconciliation

A conversation with Elsie Heiss, co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Church Ministry
By VICTORIA BROOKS
20 August, 2006
Aboriginal people are dedicated, they really are spiritually dedicated, says Elsie Heiss, co-ordinator of the Church of
Reconciliation and Aboriginal Catholic Ministry at
La Perouse.
Its not just something that is here today and gone tomorrow, it is within them, and it remains there.
Sitting in her church, Elsie a loving mother of five and grandmother of six speaks with astonishing passion about
her faith, her identity and the spirituality of her people.
This is a woman of great conviction, committed to change.
Elsie who is also a representative on the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC)
has dedicated her life to promoting understanding between Aboriginal people and the Catholic Church.
Aboriginal people are very spiritual, she explains, and the Church of Reconciliation gives them an opportunity to liveout this faith within the context of the Catholic Church.
This is us, too, this belongs to us also, she says.
We are Catholic, we are spiritual people and we need to be recognised.
Elsie was born into the Wiradjuri nation of NSW, as the sixth of eight children.
Both my parents were Catholic, she says. My mother was brought up in a Catholic home and my father was from an
Irish Catholic background.
So we had a strong link to the Church. But that is the only thing we had in those early days the link.
It was never going to church, it was never being invited into the Church.
It was when Elsie moved to Sydney at the tender age of 17, that she determined the path she walks today.
I came to Sydney, to the big smoke, in late 1955, she says.
Two years later, in 1957, Elsie met Joe.
He was just out from Austria and spoke about three words of English, she says with a smile.
We clicked and, after two years, we married at St Vincents Church at Redfern.
In 1966, they moved to Matraville with their nine-month-old daughter, Monica.
Over the next 17 years, they had four more children.
The Church was part of our life, says Elsie. Our kids were all baptised in the Church.
Joe (he died last November) was probably more Catholic than me at the time.
He was very strong in the faith and we brought our children up the same way.
Elsie says that sharing her life with children allowed her own faith to flourish.
I think it becomes stronger when you have children, she says.
You become very church orientated, and dedicated, because that is where you want your
children to be.
In 1989 more than 30 years after arriving in Sydney Elsie met Fr Frank Fletcher who introduced her to the
Aboriginal Catholic Ministry.
He talked to me about the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry that he wanted to start up in Erskineville, she says.
Elsie says that while she had been involved in Aboriginal political movements in the early days, she didnt feel as
though she had done anything to support the
spirituality of her people.
I didnt feel as though I was doing anything in the spiritual sense for the Aboriginal people, as far as Catholicism was
concerned, she says.
So she moved in there and worked one day a week.
This was an exciting time because in the Block in Redfern at that time there were lots of Aboriginal Catholics from
my country Wiradjuri country.
It was exciting because a great number of Aboriginal people wanted to come to church, and have their children
baptised, says Elsie.
It was so vibrant, so happening she says.
By the mid 1990s, however, the church began to slow, as many Aboriginal people moved out of Redfern.
They started to clear the Block out, says Elsie.
Our church got a bit slower then because people werent there.
Elsies early involvement with the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry at Erskineville where she spent a total of eight years
inspired her to find a church at La Perouse.
I decided this is my community out here, she says looking around her. I thought it would be nice to start up a
ministry out of the city, but still within the archdiocese of Sydney.
She approached Fr Pat Hurley, of St Andrews parish, Malabar.
Fr Pat told Elsie about a church at La Perouse that was soon to be vacated.
It wasnt long before Elsie moved in to the church where, for the first 18 months, she shared with a Eucharistic
ministry.
We got on well, excepting that I couldnt have anything Aboriginal left in the church. I had to pack it up and take it out
all the time, she says.
Elise held her first service at the Reconciliation Church in November 1998.

It was a great success, she says, but I knew we had to take it one day at a time.
In December 1998 Elsie put the progress of her church on hold, while she travelled to Rome to attend the Synod of
Oceania.
I was the only Aboriginal representative. It was a great honour, she says.
Elsies presence at the Synod gave a voice to her people and initiated great interest from other members of the
Church.
She was invited to give an intervention to the Synod which went over beautifully.
Everyone was saying who are these Aboriginal people? she says.
It was just wonderful.
Elsie returned home enthused by the experience.
When I came back from Rome, she says, I thought it was time to get this Church on the right track. So for the next
year I pressed on.
In time the Eucharistic ministry moved out which made things
easier for me, she says. And weve been going full blast ever since.
As Elsie tells her story, she reveals a deeply spiritual side.
The spirits are here, she says.
They are in this very spiritual place, and they are happy that were here.
Its a very spiritual place to be at Mass, and anyone who comes here will come back, she says.
Its not about whether they come to pray. Its about them coming. That is the most important thing.
Aboriginal people need to feel that spiritual side of them before they go straight into religion, she explains.
And I think if they come here to Mass they get some of that spirituality. They dont have to partake in anything they
just have to feel the spirit.
The Church of Reconciliation conducts a Mass on the first Sunday of each month.
We have a lovely Mass here, says Elsie.
It is very unusual while not changing anything in the Catholic Church. It is very straight down the line with Catholic
rights, but we enhance it with our Aboriginal Our Father, with the Aboriginal Lamb of God, with our artwork and with
our symbolism, she says.
Priests from across the board are invited to conduct Mass from MSCs to Jesuits to Marist Fathers.
We have a different priest every Mass, says Elsie.
Between 70 and-80 people attend the monthly masses at La Perouse.
This includes children who are very free here, says Elsie. All my family come.
Elsie says it is encouraging to see how her own children are dedicated with bringing their children to Mass.
It is wonderful for me to see this happen again for the next generation, she says. And those kids are learning about
who they are Aboriginal, but Catholic.
In October, Elise will travel to Alice Springs to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul IIs visit and his
Call to Reconciliation.
Celebrations are being held there to end an Aboriginal message stick relay which was launched by NATSICC last year
to renew the late Popes message.
Elsie had intended to be in Alice Springs for the Popes address in 1986 but
unfortunately was ill.
What a shame, what a shame, she recalls. But Ill be there this time, she says with
great enthusiasm.
The relay of the message stick is the Popes message. The greatest thing it has
done is brought community into unity. It is like a revival. We needed that.
And I think John Paul II is up there knowing this is happening.
While in Alice Springs, Elsie will take part in a five day pilgrimage.
It is going to be magic for me, she says. I cant wait to do that ... to be part of the
dream walk that the Holy Father did 20 years ago.
I feel like I have been rewarded, this is a real gift that I will take with both hands.
Elsie s is also looking forward to being involved in World Youth Day in 2008.
I am on the elders committee and my son, Mark, is on the Indigenous youth
committee, she says.
Elsie is excited by the involvement her people have in the Catholic Church.
Look at these exciting things that are happening for Aboriginal people.
We are not left out. We are on committees. We are talking for ourselves, she says.
I see an exciting future because Aboriginal people are starting to awaken.
The Church of Reconciliation is a joint venture of St Andrews parish, Malabar, and
the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Sydney archdiocese.

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=9&articleID=2215&class=Features&s
ubclass=A%20conversation%20with

Reconciliation and the political virtue of apology

Frank Brennan ABC Religion and Ethics 28 May 2012
On Monday 21 May 2012, the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman handed over the land title to the
traditional lands at Archer River in Cape York which had been claimed 35 years ago by John Koowarta. But
he went one step further. He apologised for the actions and denials of earlier governments.
"Today I want to confront the issue. That is, 35 years ago a great injustice was perpetrated. And today
we're here to put that right. We're here to make sure that it is right forever, and to give back to the people
what was rightfully theirs. I'm sure, if all Queenslanders knew the story of what happened in 1977 and
afterwards, they would feel as sorry as I do myself. So today, my apologies to those who have suffered."
When asked by journalist Peter McCutcheon on ABC 7.30 what this apology meant to them, traditional
owners were delighted. Alan Creek said, "It means a great deal for us, what has happened over the last 30
years." John Koowarta's widow, Martha, said, "I'm really proud. Big surprise for me."
For me, many memories came flooding back. Aurukun, on the west coast of Cape York in Northern
Queensland, was dry in May 1982 - no rain and no grog allowed. A drunken but happy Aboriginal man
staggered towards me, introducing himself: "I Johnny Koowarta."
He apologised for being drunk and explained that he had just returned from Weipa, a mining town to the
north where the Albatross Hotel served alcohol to all comers. In his broken English, Mr Koowarta
explained, "I bin breakin' the seal of the Queensland government. Me first man break that seal." I realised
this was the person who the previous week had won an historic victory in the High Court of Australia
against the Queensland government.
John was one of the traditional owners of land at Archer River Bend in Cape York. The Commonwealth's
Aboriginal Land Fund Commission had allocated funds for the purchase of the pastoral lease because
Cabinet thought Aborigines already had enough land. In September 1972 Cabinet had decided "the
Queensland government does not view favourably proposals to acquire large areas of additional freehold or
leasehold land for development by Aborigines or Aboriginal groups in isolation." This racially discriminatory
policy was struck down by the High Court. Mr Koowarta had heard the result of his case on the radio news.
He knew nothing of the detail.
The next day, John came back sober. We sat under a tree and spent all morning working though every line
of the complex High Court Judgment Koowarta v Bjelke Petersen. John was very proud. He autographed
my copy of the judgment.
In 1990, I heard John speak at a conference on "Two Laws and Two Cultures" at the University of
Queensland. To the surprise of land rights activists he proclaimed his simple, evangelical Christian
message: "We are all one." On 19 February 1991, John and I were back on the lecture circuit in Brisbane
and I had the great pleasure of introducing him to Sir Ninian Stephen who had been one of the judges who
heard John's case. He had concluded his judgment in John's favour, saying the withholding of approval by
the Queensland Minister for Lands
"once explained by reference to the settled policy of his government, amounted to a refusal to permit
persons, then possibly unknown to him but who in fact included Mr Koowarta, to occupy land by reason of
their race."
The retired Governor General, with his legendary pipe in hand and that most mellifluous of voices, asked,
"Do I understand that you still do not have title to your land?" John replied, "That's right, sir." Sir Ninian
expressed his dismay and John beamed with pride that he was known by the highest in the land as the one
who had broken the seal of the Queensland government.
Sir Ninian was a keynote speaker at the next session of the conference and told the audience of his joyful
meeting with Koowarta. He said, "It is not everyday that an erstwhile High Court judge meets a famous
party whose case he had previously decided."

Campbell Newman's apology in the week before National Reconciliation Week reminds us of the national
parliamentary apology sponsored by Kevin Rudd when Prime Minister. On 13 February 2008, the national
Parliament apologised to the Aboriginal people. The motion of apology was moved by Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson.
There had been more than ten years of debate in the Australian community distinguishing between sorry
and regret. It was like a telescoped, secular equivalent of the centuries old justification debate. American
scholars like Glen Pettigrove are adamant that "we may express regret for our parents' actions, but we may
not apologise for them." On slavery, he quotes Kathleen Parker in the Chicago Tribune:
"So let's get this straight: We who have never owned a slave, who have never believed in or condoned
slavery, who are not descended from anyone who ever owned a slave must pay people who have never
been slaves? The search for logic in the reparations argument is futile."
While answering "No" to Parker's question, one can still espouse national apology in some circumstances
and establish some logic in the reparations argument. I suggest the following lessons from our Australian
experience:

A national apology must be a response to sustained requests by identifiable victims.

A national apology must build upon individual apologies and apologies by agencies involved in
previous wrongdoing, and not substitute for them.
The "we" who apologise must not speak on behalf of the living who are not willing parties to the
apology.
The "we" who apologise must not presume to speak on behalf of the deceased, applying
contemporary moral standards to past behaviour which was legal and judged justifiable at the time.
The "we" who apologise must intend to express through their performative utterance of the word
"sorry" not only sympathy and regret but also collective responsibility for the ongoing effects of past
actions, which "we" now have cause to regret, offering sympathy and entitled assistance to the
victims still living and their descendants who have also been affected by those past actions.
The "we" who apologise should identify with the collective "we" of the past, who, being the same
agent in the polity, approved these past actions or who, at least, failed to counter these past actions
when having a duty to act in the interests of the victims.
The victims and their descendants should be willing to accept the apology.
The "we" (binding the future collective "we") and the victims and their descendants should be
prepared to commit themselves to putting the past behind them and working together for a new
future.
The apology should be backed by a firm commitment by the "we" to make resources available to put
right the ongoing adverse effects of past actions, while also leaving open the possibility of payment
of compensation (reparations) in proven cases of wrongs committed on identifiable persons.

In Australia, the "we" was not "We the people" but "We the Parliament of Australia" who uttered the
performative utterance "sorry," and only after all State and Territory Parliaments, churches and other social
welfare agencies had done the same. In what is basically a bi-party system, there was bipartisan support
from the major political parties for the apology.
The 42nd Australian parliament apologised acknowledging that earlier parliaments and governments had
"inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on persons who were their "fellow Australians". The parliament
apologised in its own name for things done by predecessor parliaments and governments of both party
political persuasions.
The parliament saw its apology as a first step acknowledging the past followed by a second step: "laying
claim to a future that embraces all Australians." The parliament pledged itself and future parliaments to "a
future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility."
This apology by the elected parliament came eleven years after individual citizens had started a concerted
national campaign of personal apologies for past wrongs and present ongoing consequences. In 1991, the
Parliament with bipartisan support had legislated for a Council of Aboriginal Reconciliation.

In 1995-96, a national inquiry was conducted into "the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children from their families by compulsion, duress or undue influence, and the effects of those laws,
practices and policies." The main national indigenous organisation (ATSIC) proposed:
"The prospect of apologies to indigenous people has been raised on many occasions. There is no uniform
view about reparations but there is a consistent view of indigenous people as to the necessity for
apologies."
During the inquiry many churches and non-government organisations which had participated in the
removals policy made formal apologies.
At the 1997 Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne, the Bringing Them Home Report was launched,
highlighting the plight of those indigenous children removed without lawful authority and without
consideration of their best interests. Prime Minister John Howard did make a personal apology the day
before, and it was not limited to the stolen generations. He received appreciative applause from the
audience when he said:
"Personally, I feel deep sorrow for those of my fellow Australians who suffered injustices under the
practices of past generations towards indigenous people. Equally, I am sorry for the hurt and trauma many
here today may continue to feel, as a consequence of those practices."
Summing up that day of the conference, I as rapporteur was asked by the planning committee to announce
that on the following day we who were not indigenous might offer our own personal apologies to those
indigenous persons around us. Non-indigenous participants were invited to apologise to the indigenous
participants:
"As we indicated yesterday, we will take the opportunity, not waiting for government, not chastising
government, but taking the responsibility ourselves. So this morning, just for a minute or two, those of us
who are not Indigenous Australians, let's turn to those Indigenous people around us, to those who want to
offer their hands. To them, let us offer a personal apology. If for nothing else, let us apologise that even
when we act with the best of intentions we still so often get it wrong. Let's apologise."
At the end of that Convention, after the formal presentation of the Bringing Them Home report, the nonindigenous participants then made a formal collective apology:
"We who are recent migrants and descendants of migrants who have come to this land, having attended
the Australian Reconciliation Convention, thank you, the Aboriginal people gathered at this conference, for
your tolerance of us, our cultures and aspirations. Also, we apologise for the hurt done to you, your
ancestors and your lands by our ancestors, our presence and our actions on this land over the last 209
years."
All participants, indigenous and non-indigenous, who were so minded then said:
"Committed to walk together on this land, we commit ourselves to reconciliation and building better
relationships so that we can constitute a united Australia, respecting the land, valuing the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander heritage and providing justice and equity for all."
In 2000, another national convention was held and hundreds of thousands of Australians walked across
bridges as a gesture of reconciliation. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was packed with pedestrians all day
while a skywriting airplane wrote "Sorry" above the Sydney Opera House.
For eleven years, the national Parliament was divided over the question of an apology with one side of the
chamber willing to express only regret and sympathy and refusing to be party to a national apology. The
then Prime Minister John Howard was a strong opponent of any apology. On 2 June 1997, he told
Parliament:
"[The government] believes that to do so is to indicate in some way that present generations of Australians
are responsible and can be held accountable for the errors, wrongs and misdeeds of earlier generations.
Apologising for something clearly implies some direct personal responsibility. An unwillingness to deliver a

formal apology in no way connotes insensitivity or lack of sympathy. Rather, it is a statement of the
obvious. Present generations of Australians are not responsible for the errors of earlier generations,
particularly when the act involved was sanctioned by law and believed at the time to be for the benefit of
the people affected."
In 2008, the Australian parliament moved its focus from intergenerational guilt to intergenerational
responsibility with the national legislators apologising for actions which ought not to have been sanctioned
by law and for actions which were insufficiently scrutinised to determine whether they were for the benefit of
the people affected.
It is commonplace for a court or a legislature to claim and to own continuity of responsibility for the
outcomes of laws and policies (benign or harmful) put in place by that court or legislature at earlier times,
even though the court or legislature was differently constituted, and even though some or all present
members of the court or legislature were not members at the time.
The Parliament (both sides) accepted responsibility for past laws, policies and repeated failures of the
Parliament in earlier times. Hundreds of thousands of Australians watched the national apology on screens
erected in public squares in the major cities. Millions tuned in on their televisions. Many Aborigines wore
black T-shirts emblazoned with one word: "Thanks."
This was one national apology which fulfilled the criteria for the collective "we" saying sorry to the victims
and their descendants for the past actions of the collective "we" which warranted more than regret and
sympathy. There has been much talk of healing the nation's soul. It was an instance of an appropriate
drawing of the line on past wrongs and setting a new direction by legislators responding to the nation
"demanding of its political leadership to take us forward." It was not only useful, logical and politic; it was
the right thing to do.
There are many issues which will not be resolved overnight simply because our Parliament has said sorry
to the stolen generations. But the process leading to the apology and its content provide lessons and hope
for the future.
In 2008 there was no indigenous Australian as a member of Parliament. Ironically, if there had been, the
symbolism of the Apology by "us" to "them" would have been more difficult to express. At the last federal
election an Aboriginal was for the first time elected to the House of Representatives. In his maiden speech
on 29 September 2010, Mr Ken Wyatt thanked Mr Rudd and the Parliament:
"The apology to the stolen generation has been a powerful instrument in the healing of both our people and
our nation. The apology was acknowledged and received in the spirit for which it was offered. When the
former Prime Minister delivered the apology on 13 February 2008 in this chamber I shed tears for my
mother and her siblings. My mother and her siblings, along with many others, did not live to hear the words
delivered in the apology, which would have meant a great deal to them individually. I felt a sense of relief
that the pain of the past had been acknowledged and that the healing could begin. At that point, the
standing orders prevented an Indigenous response. On behalf of my mother, her siblings and all
Indigenous Australians, I, as an Aboriginal voice in this chamber, say thank you for the apology delivered in
the federal parliament and I thank the Hon. Kevin Rudd for honouring his commitment to the stolen
generation."
Apologies worked long and hard for, apologies sincerely expressed, and apologies gratefully received and
acknowledged can provide a pragmatic basis from which to reconcile the previously irreconcilable and to
build a better future for those long marginalised from the benefits of post-colonial society.
Father Frank Brennan SJ is professor of law at the Public Policy Institute, Australian Catholic University
and adjunct professor at the College of Law and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian
National University.
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/28/3512364.htm